Revenance

By  S. Arallion

Based on "Ronin Warriors"

(the English version of the anime series "Yoroiden Samurai Troopers")

Disclaimer:  All characters in this story are owned by their respective copyright holders—namely, not myself.  Anything you don't recognize is my fault.  I make absolutely no profit from my use of these characters.  ~~Arallion

Part 4:  Nightmares

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heavy.  That was the only word to describe how he felt.  His eyes flickered open and immediately closed again.

All right, there was another word.  Ouch.

Anubis had never experienced such a debilitating headache in his life—or death, for that matter.  The pain lanced through his eyes and started a dangerous tremolo in the back of his head, between the muscles of his neck and his spine.  Gritting his teeth, he tried to move his head, in hopes that the movement would stop the spasms in his muscles.

The movement didn't feel good, but it did have the desired effect.  He took a deep breath, and then another, suddenly realizing that he was breathing.  Really breathing—and smelling the real, stale air of Talpa's Dynasty throne room, he noticed with a lurch of his heart.

Talpa had actually done it.  He was alive, if barely. 

Someone was grasping his limp arms and pulling him upright.  He tried to pull away from the touch, but at this movement an excruciating tingle began in his limbs, provoking a gasp of pain.  His eyes blearily focused on the Dynasty soldiers who held him up, and then looked past them.

Talpa was actually attending this disgusting ritual in person, he noted with a shudder.  At the Dynasty Lord's side floated Badamon, the cunning Ankoku high priest and Talpa's advisor. 

The Dynasty Lord was extremely satisfied with his work.  "Ah, Anubis.  So nice of you to finally join us….  How do you like being alive again?"

The ex-Warlord blinked painfully.  "It leaves a little to be desired,"  he said in a dry tone.

Talpa chuckled again.  "Don't worry, my dear boy.  The pain will pass soon enough.  It is merely your body awakening from its dormancy.  Badamon tells me that he has something that can help you through this, if you will allow it."

The blue-green eyes narrowed angrily.  "I don't think so."

"Ah, well," Talpa rumbled with a noncommittal wave of his armored hand.  "Take him to his chambers, then."

Anubis was lifted by the Dynasty creatures and helplessly carried from the throne room.  He grimaced in frustration.  Normally he should have been able to take out two Dynasty soldiers even if his feet weren't touching the ground, but right now he couldn't lift his head without feeling as if he were going to pass out.  He sighed mentally.  What happens now?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

With a flash of golden light, Lady Kayura appeared above the fields of the Nether Realm.  She hung motionlessly for a time, extending her senses through the fabric of the sphere. 

All appeared calm on the surface.  The lacy flowers in the fields moved gently in the wind, causing a quiet rustle.  Nothing else moved.

As she waited, deepening her connection, a strange dark current flowed across her consciousness.  It was a horribly familiar feeling, a presence that had held her in sway for decades.  She flinched away, but it wasn't paying attention to her—instead, it was focusing all its attention on a single shining thread at its center…  and that thread was familiar to her as well.

Kayura came back to herself with a frightened gasp, and raced onward to the home she and the Warlords shared, sending out an urgent call as she ran.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The room Anubis awoke in was one that he had never seen during his time in the Dynasty.  The walls, ceiling and floor were stone, but a light, smooth stone that looked almost soft.  The furnishings were of gently curved wood, and the hangings and upholstery were in shades of green.  A hall led to another room, and an upright mirror stood in the corner.

He pushed his complaining body—great Spirits, he actually had a body again!—up to a sitting position on the edge of the bed and waited for the dizziness to pass.  After a moment, he felt well enough to attempt standing and did so.  His armor clanked on the stone floor and he looked down at himself in surprise.

He frowned.  Something was very wrong.  After a period of unconsciousness the armor should have been dismissed, but there it was.

The Armor of Loyalty clacked in a familiar rhythm as he walked across the room to the mirror.  Looking at the image curiously, his eyes widened.  "What in the name of the Ancient One…" 

A strange golden insignia was overlaid on his chest plate.  The same insignia appeared on a golden bracer on his left arm, and the greave on his right leg.  He peered closely at it, trying to remember where he had seen the emblem, but the effort began to bring back his headache.

Shaking his head in defeat, he tried to dismiss the armor.  The magical plate seemed to struggle against his command, though, and dematerialized with agonizing slowness.  Worried, he looked at himself in the mirror once more.  There was nothing odd about his sub-armor, but the feeling of wrongness was still present.  His blue-green eyes flashed in irritation at his inability to think, as the headache thundered behind his eyes.

Suddenly distracted, he touched his face with one hand.  The feeling was strange to him, having been a spirit for so long.  He didn't understand how Talpa had accomplished this feat, and he was terrified that it meant he would be Talpa's slave once more.  But the hope began to surface that possibly—just possibly—he could go back to the mortal world and experience a normal, mortal life.  Perhaps he would even be able to help Mia in her work, allowing her to finish her grandfather's tasks that much sooner and to begin following her own dreams… 

The eyes that looked back at him from the mirror looked faintly startled at this thought, and the pale, narrow face colored slightly. 

Anubis narrowed his eyes and glared at his reflection in the mirror, then stalked back across the room to the bed.  He was asleep almost immediately, despite the horror of his situation.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"He can't DO that," insisted Cale flatly. 

Kayura's hands twitched as she fought the urge to box the Warlord of Corruption's ears.  She settled for merely glaring at him until he sat down with a sullen look.  "What he can and cannot do are beside the point, gentlemen," she pointed out, one eyebrow soaring upward at the appellation.  "Talpa seems to be back in action.  The Ankoku spirits are rising again.  I no longer have control of the Armor of Loyalty.  And all signs seem to indicate that Anubis' spirit has disappeared from the astral plane.  No matter how one looks at it, it spells trouble for us and the mortal realm!"

Dais, slightly older than the rest of the Warlords, tapped his index fingers against his lips thoughtfully.  "Your conclusion is a logical extension of the circumstances," he admitted finally.  "No matter how unwilling we may be to believe it."  Kayura rolled her eyes at him, but he chose to ignore the gesture.  "Now the question is:  what do we do about it, if Anubis really has been called back to life to serve Talpa?  Is there anything we can do about it?"

Sekhmet shuddered, from his quiet position in the corner.  "I can't even imagine what it would be like, to wake from your peaceful final sleep and see Talpa's ugly face hovering over you."

Cale shot him a glance.  "As far as I've been able to tell, Anubis' 'final sleep' has been anything but peaceful.  Damn annoying ghost…"

Kayura nonchalantly thumped him on the head.  He glared up at her, and she smiled sweetly back at him.  She knew the Warlord well enough to see that he was very uneasy with the new situation, and that he worried more for their one-time leader's wellbeing than he let on. 

"We don't have a lot of time to discuss, I'm afraid.  Talpa's influence over the Dynasty creatures will still be great, and the lure of power and control over the mortal realm will entice many to his side.  We are going to have to find his lair and see if Anubis is under his control, and then try to get him away.  That will be more difficult, the longer Talpa has to gather forces against us."

Dais pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning against with a grim look.  His white hair seemed to glow in the dim room.  "What are we standing around here talking about it for, then?" he grumbled.  "To arms!"

The transformation to their armor was a familiar comfort that they had only recently begun to enjoy, without the threat of Talpa's wrath constantly hanging over them.  Looking around at each other, however, one person was decidedly underdressed.

"Kayura.  Will you be all right without your Armor?"  Dais frowned.

She tossed her long dark hair with a smile.  "It was never my Armor," she pointed out.  "Besides, I survived without the Armor of Loyalty before we defeated Talpa.  I can do it again," her voice was light as she tapped her twin Starlight Swords meaningfully.

Cale smirked at Dais, who merely grunted acknowledgement.  Sekhmet laughed. 

"Dais, you said that you came upon a strange darkness to the south of here, before I called you all back," the Ancient's descendant stated.  "Do you have a clear picture of it in your mind?  I can get us partially there and cut down on our time." 

The Warlord of Illusion nodded briskly and they all joined hands.  Kayura began to chant, and the strange group shimmered into a streak of light that raced across the sky, heading south.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"I don't trust it at all." Rowan glowered out at the peaceful lake from Mia's balcony. 

The Ronin Warriors were perched around Mia's workshop/office.  Mia had gone up to look for more information on the armors and their potential for alteration, or the possibility of resurrection of an Armor Bearer.  One by one the boys had come upstairs to check on her progress, until all of the household was there, nervous as cats in a roomful of rocking chairs.  She was finding it a little difficult to concentrate.

"Mia, have you found anything yet?"

She sighed, flipping a lock of hair over her shoulder.  "No, Kento, I haven't.  I'll yell if I do, I promise!"  It had been bad enough when Anubis had been there looking over her shoulder, completely unfamiliar with computers in his four-hundred-year-old naïveté, but now she had five of the boys to deal with.  Plus Yuli—but he knew better than to interrupt her thoughts. 

"What don't you trust, Rowan?"  Ryo's question distracted the boys.

Rowan tugged at his forelock worriedly.  "Well, first of all, the idea of Talpa being up to his old tricks again.  Didn't we flatten that Dynasty creep well enough to keep him down?  And second, Kayura's theory about Anubis being brought back to life and controlled through his armor is just weird.  I mean, I suppose if Talpa comes back from the dead all the time, he could bring someone else back too.  But Talpa couldn't control him before, why should he be able to now?"

Mia was distracted despite herself.  "Those are good questions, Rowan," she started.  "I think I know the answer to the first one, however.  The Ancient knew that Talpa could never really be destroyed, because he was the avatar of evil.  Evil is still present in the mortal realm, in the form of fear, despair, avarice—and all the other traits that are the dark side of being human.  He could only be contained, never removed entirely.  Perhaps the wars going on around the world are strengthening him."

"Maybe that strength also allows him to attract other followers," Cye spoke up, uncharacteristically somber.  "Remember Sun Devil and Saranbo—and Badamon.  There might be others that we don't know about, that could combine with Talpa to have the power to bring Anubis back and control him…"

Rowan turned to face them from his position on the balcony, crossing his arms.  "Okay, I see what you mean.  But finally, if all this is really happening in the Nether Realm, why didn't Kayura bring us there with her to help them?  I mean, it sounds like this could be a major battle.  Three Warlords and Lady Kayura don't seem like quite enough juice to stop something like this."

"Agreed," Ryo said, frowning.  "But we can't get to the Nether Realm without her help, so we have to wait and trust them.  I know it's still hard to do," he grinned, forestalling a smart remark from Kento, "but we don't have a choice this time."

"Do we ever?" Sage grumbled from his position on the floor.

Mia sighed and returned to her search.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And how is our prisoner, Badamon?" the booming voice rolled across the audience chamber.

Badamon's ghostly form approached the throne smoothly.  "He is weak, Master Talpa," he stated confidently.  "He will soon drink my herbal infusion voluntarily to stave off the pain, or he will be too weak to resist when we force him to drink it.  Either way, the same result," the Ankoku High Priest chuckled with a hint of malice.

"Be sure that the result will be the same," warned Talpa.  "Your overconfidence has brought us grief before.  Anubis' will is strong, stronger than you may anticipate.  Prepare accordingly."

The sallow face of the priest blanched at the rebuke.  "Yes, Lord Talpa."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~